


The Greatest Gift of All

by andthekitchensink



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, DBH Secret Santa 2020, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-16 00:36:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,984
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28697811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andthekitchensink/pseuds/andthekitchensink
Summary: For their first proper Christmas together, Connor tries (and fails to a certain extent) to surprise his partner.For this year's DBH Secret Santa, for phcknrobot :)I hope you like it, sorry about the late upload, and a belated Merry Christmas!
Relationships: Hank Anderson/Connor
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	The Greatest Gift of All

* * *

The moment he brought the car round the bend in the road and their very own, albeit rented, cabin in the woods came into view, Connor knew his latest attempt at surprising his partner was an undisputable success - not that Hank had anything against surprises, it was just a matter of his tendency for anticipating them. Or, rather, in this case, Connor’s own fault for being a terrible liar: a case of answering innocent questions and overcompensating, or so he surmised. If a perpetrator asks you if you’re armed, and you want to trick them into believing you are not, the correct response would  _ not _ be ‘No, I don’t have a gun.’ It didn’t work on his first mission, and it most definitely didn’t work with Hank. No harm, no foul, like Captain Fowler liked to put it.

Similarly, if your first (technically his second) Christmas as a free android is coming up, and one of your dear friends and colleagues asks if you have any plans, right there in front of your partner, whom you want to surprise, the correct response is  _ not _ ‘No, I haven’t planned a romantic getaway for the weekend.’ At least Hank had found it all very amusing. Collins just shook his head grinning, which was all well and good, but Hank didn’t stop teasing him for the rest of the week, trying to tempt him into spilling the beans. Or trick him into it, to be more precise. 

In any case, the moment he drove into Cheboygan State Park and they both realized they were surrounded by pure, unadulterated nature, a fresh light came into Hank’s eyes. While this was the first time Connor had set foot in an actual forest, or a state park for that matter, and he did feel like the proverbial kid in the candy shop, all agog and buzzing with electrical impulses, rattling off a mental checklist of all the trees and plants he could name...but Hank looked  _ stunned _ .

Pure wonder, that’s what that light was, and Connor couldn’t have been happier to see it. He parked the car, turned off the engine and patted Hank’s arm to nudge him out of his slack-jawed amazement.

“We’re here,” Connor pointed out, because he liked pointing out the blatantly obvious every now and again if only for Hank to roll his eyes skyward, and to be fair, he was feeling uncharacteristically cheerful even with the 15 inches of snow. Hank seemed positively excited at the prospect of it all. The roads were kept open, and they’d had no issues getting here, so… So far, so good, and hopefully it’d only get better over the course of the weekend. The luxury of a long, three-day weekend off from work, away from Detroit, away from being recognized by total strangers, just the three of them - Connor, Hank and Sumo.

Speaking of the big pup. “Chop, chop boys. You help me with the trunk, Sumo, Hank, you get started on the rest?”

Sumo barked a cheerful  _ Aye aye Cap’n _ ; Hank grinned, or hadn’t stopped grinning since they entered the park. “This is-- This is amazing!”

Connor returned the grin with a happy smile of his own, and winked at Sumo. “There’s a good boy.”

Hank unbuckled his seat belt and stepped out of the passenger seat as if in a daze. The fresh, fluffy snow covered the ground, lending a magical, winter wonderland air to the place. “This is...beautiful,” he said, hedging very close to monosyllabic disbelief and wonder. “Is that the lake?”

“Uhuh,” Connor hummed, hauling their bags from car to porch while Hank and Sumo both stood paralyzed before the glory of woodland splendor.

On his way back to the car Connor looked at him, as he stood there pointing excitedly down between the trees. It seemed the penny had finally dropped. “I can see the lake from here! We’re  _ staying  _ here?!  _ Here _ ?”

“Uhuh.” Connor grinned, and allowed himself a detour: kiss his partner’s grinning mouth, hug him from behind and, resting his chin atop Hank’s shoulder, he spied through the trees to see what the fuss was all about. From this distance he could barely make out any sort of delineation between ground and lake, but there was no mistaking the vast expanse of bright white down there: Lake Huron. Connor had never seen anything like it, only something...entirely too close to it for comfort, but Hank was having a moment of childlike nostalgia. It was precious, and rare in every sense of the word. Even if the sight gave him a semblance of chills.

“We used to come here every summer when I was a kid,” Hank murmured. “Not exactly  _ here _ , here, but to the park. It was fantastic. But--” One last, firm squeeze to his partner’s hands. “More on that  _ inside _ . It’s freezing, come on, let’s go.”

Connor grinned all the way to the trunk of the car, and didn’t stop until they were safely inside the cabin and shaking fresh snow from their coats and boots.

The cabin itself had all the luxuries of their own home, but tucked into a space half the size of the house - a small kitchen settled against the far wall with a small stove and a cupboard for dry goods and a slim fridge/freezer combo, sharing the open space with a living room complete with couch and fireplace. Two doors to the left each led to storage-and-utility and a bathroom - also less than half the size they were used to. The big windows to the front of the cabin let in so much light the space didn’t feel crowded even with the clouds overhead, but bright and airy. Up above them, a mezzanine level stretched from left to right, with a narrow staircase leading up to the bedroom. It was compact, but not enough that it felt crowded. In short: it was just right. It was exactly as Connor had arranged for, but even though he knew about this in advance, he couldn’t help but feel happy to see it matched his expectations.

Hank went from one area to the next, a grin splitting his face in half, and Connor followed in his footsteps, hands clasped casually behind his back. Together they checked out their rented home away from home - Connor switched on the log fire, where Sumo unceremoniously set up camp, Hank tried the couch and deemed it perfect for taking a load off; not five minutes later Hank groused about the bathroom, wondering out loud why he had to have a bathroom more than twice the size when this obviously ticked all the boxes, and Connor pointed out there was nothing wrong with a bit more space to move, even if he did have a point; the kitchen next: fully functional, with plenty of room for the provisions they brought along; and last but not least the bedroom… Connor was especially pleased with that one. Like the rest of the cabin, it felt airy and bright, and from up there, you had the most wonderful view of the snowy woods outside - it was very pretty, but that wasn’t why Connor had such a soft spot for the room. It was the bed.

Hank turned around from where he stood at the foot of the bed, to stare at Connor. Big blue eyes wide open, eyebrows up high, a hint of teeth bared in co-mingling skepticism and awe.

“That’s big enough for five people,” he said, obviously impressed by this fact.

Connor tilted his head, eyebrows slanting in sync with the motion. He could feel an impish grin on his lips the millisecond before it broke. “Is that your expert opinion? Or are you just guesstimating?”

Hank’s lips twitched: neither one of them could keep a straight face much, not when flirting. “I’m not gonna get much sleep over the weekend, am I?”

Not that they tended to sleep much, for several reasons, one of which being their job. But they weren’t discussing work right now, and they both knew it. Connor shook his head, mock solemn, but that too faded quickly when Hank nodded his head in wordless come-hither. They swayed side to side in a firm hug that didn’t seem to want to end. They kissed, and they kissed again, and traded knowing smiles and enough eyebrow waggles to have them both chuckling low and soft.

One last little peck, and Connor’s hands brushed up and down his very own human’s arms. “You’re freezing. I’m freezing. How about we get a big pot of coffee going, and see if Sumo feels like sharing the fireplace?”

Hank’s wrists settled around Connor’s neck, fingers laced behind the base of his skull. Connor’s hands found the small of Hank’s back by way of his love handles. Both seemed reluctant to step away just yet. Hank’s eyes were very blue in this light, and very warm. The skin around his eyes crinkled beautifully, happy little crow's’ feet. “You know...when you slipped up and said ‘romantic getaway’, this is not what I expected. An entire three days off work? And  _ here _ ?”

It was fairly obvious what he was asking. It could be distilled into one small word:  _ how _ ? Connor shrugged under the familiar, comforting weight of Hank’s forearms. “I listen to you when you tell me things. I pay attention.” (He may have made some equitable investments that paid off, in Hank’s name, of course, using his digital ID. Without telling him. Not entirely legal, but high enough above board for both their sensibilities.) He didn’t mean to imply Hank’s exes did otherwise, or cared less, but he’d come to understand that listening politely was something humans did even with their loved ones. He did not. He filed away every word Hank ever told him, and sorted them, indexed them, ready for cross referencing when needed.

“And,” he added, quiet, teasing. “I’m not above asking your friends for advice.”

“What, all five of them?” Hank grumbled, but it was through another smile. His eyebrows arched. “Jeff told you about my misspent youth, didn’t he.”

“Only in passing. You and your father… You used to go on fishing trips. This was your favorite place.”

Hank nodded; Connor went on. “I want you to have more memories here. Good memories, in new places. Or old, familiar ones.”

That brought out a fresh bout of chuckles from the man in question. “I don’t get you sometimes. The moment we get the first hint of snow, you go all twitchy, but you’ll gladly go out to the middle of nowhere, at Christmastime, snow galore, winter wonderland? How’d I get so lucky, huh?”

They headed for the narrow staircase, and the warmth of the fireplace. The bed could wait. For now, Connor’s palm settled comfortably at the small of Hank’s back. “I love you more than I fear snow. And...”

Hank stopped in his step, turning around on the stairs. Perhaps it was unwise to call it by its real name, ‘fear’, but just because he was supposedly programmed to tell a lie, that didn’t mean he liked it--or that he’d improved much. Not with Hank. Right this moment, though, it wasn’t his intangible dread of snow that mattered, but rather that he was willing to work on it.

“I think we both deserve good memories of this time of year. Away from the precinct, the city. And besides,” he said, brushing his thumbs parallel across Hank’s bearded cheeks.

“Who says I have to go outside any more than I want, when I have you and the fire to keep me warm?”

It was Hank who kissed him this time around, and that small press of lips told him more than any combination of words ever could. Hank understood. Like he always did.

“Every moment spent with you is like coming in from the cold.”

The End


End file.
